Amazon Steps Up U.S. Lobbying For Indian FDI

According to the lobby disclosure reports filed with the US Senate, Amazon.com and its group entities including Amazon Corporate LLC have been lobbying on various issues since 2000, but it was only in the quarter ended December 31, 2013, when its lobbying issues included “foreign direct investment in India”.     

Earlier, Walmart had been lobbying very hard among the US lawmakers for their support on its FDI plans for India. However, a number of roadblocks including probes ordered by the Indian government seem to have tempered its ambitions for India, which has been projected as one of the biggest growth markets for the retail sector across the world.    

According to Walmart’s latest disclosure, it spent close to $1.84 million on its overall lobbying activities in the U.S. during the January-March 2014 quarter, but there is no India-specific matters listed among the “specific lobbying issues” disclosed in this 18-page quarterly report.     

While India did not find a mention in the previous quarter (October-December 2013) lobbying disclosure report as well, “discussions regarding Foreign Direct Investment in India” used to be one of the ‘specific lobbying issues’ quite often in Walmart’s earlier quarterly lobbying reports.    

In its latest quarterly disclosure, Walmart has however listed “discussions regarding Walmart operations in international markets” as one of the nearly 45 specific issues that Walmart and its lobbyists discussed with the lawmakers and the government departments in the U.S. during January-March period this year.

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